FOCUS: Women in Blue (Part 2)

(continued) But Kuprevich said UPPD is actively seeking women and minorities to join the department. "We're specifically looking at issues of gender and race, besides other qualifications, because we are interested in having more women and minorities among our applicants," Kuprevich said. Canada also said that some of the women who applied were not hired because they failed one or more of the entrance exams. The exams consist of tests of physical agility, psychological fitness, physical fitness, an oral exam and an interview. Applicants also have to complete a written exam. Wells said the women that were denied jobs had particular difficulties with the physical agility, physical fitness and psychological exams. · Officer Peggy O'Malley, who has worked in University Police for just over a year, is evidence that women are as physically and psychologically fit to do police work as men. O'Malley teaches a physical fitness course to cadets at the Delaware County Police Academy, leading her students in aerobics, weight training and running. She said she works her students hard. "By the end of the day they're pretty beat -- I really work them to the ground," she said. "I work pretty hard too, because you have to prove to them that you can do it in order to earn their respect." O'Malley decided to become a police officer about four years ago because "always as a kid, I took a real interest in police work. And there weren't any women in it, so I figured now would be a good time to get into it, before the field gets saturated." O'Malley said that although she experienced some discrimination in an earlier police job in Darby Township, she was never harassed at the University. "When I came to UPPD, I was accepted right away," she said. "They were really supportive of women in the field -- I felt really welcome." And Forsyth, a police officer on leave because of pregnancy, said, "I received nothing but a warm welcome from the people at UPPD since I started. They didn't treat me any different from the guys there." Forsyth, like such colleagues as Lieutenant Holmes, has found it possible to balance an active police career with an involved family life. Forsyth said her supervisors were accomodating in this respect, taking her off street patrol and assigning her to desk work once she became pregnant. "I never expected to get any kind of special treatment," she said. "I wasn't expecting anyone else to pick up my dirty work." Forsyth's husband Daniel is also a UPPD officer, and the couple demonstrates how police work does not interfere with family life. "There is no conflict of interest," she said. Holmes, a mother herself, said she received support from her family when she and her brother decided to follow their father into a career in police. "My father was extremely proud to have two of his children go into police work," she said. "I mean, what greater compliment to a parent than to have your children go into the field you have chosen?" Still, Holmes, O'Malley, and Forsyth are members of a distinct minority. "We've got to change society, and we've also got to make certain changes in our organization," Kuprevich said.

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